Producing refined sugar



Patented May 1, 192.3.

.UNITED: srnrss earns-r c eme E.

MAX. RICHARD J'OHANN SGHMID, 0F BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.

rnonucrne nnrrNED SUGAR.

No Drawing. Application filed April 2, 1926, Serial No, 99,403, and inArgentina February 5, 1926.

In the present method of producing refined sugar there are two stagesent rely distinct one from the other, although both may firstly, that itis onlypossible to produce a.

sugar which is really white by the employment of bleachingcarbons;secondly, that the quantities of these which must .beem;

ployed are so large that the raw' material,

inthis case the raw sugar, has tobe purified to a certainextentbeforehand, otherwise the/cost ofthe bleaching, agent would be comecommercially prohibitive. These basic principles are foundeduponconceptions of unlversal acceptation, as regards the effects of themeans employed, whatever may be the actual process used.

The process; for which this patent is sought to be granted ischaracterized by being the consequence oil a radical change in the abovementioned conceptions. From this it results that, using tobegin with thesame n1eaI S,,Vbut.in a different combination,

andarriving by its intermediary at quite distinct, results, whathavebeen hitherto axiomatic difficulties have been overcome. The newprocess'allows of the two stages at presentnecessary in the refining ofsugar to be united into one stage, at a greatly reduced cost, that is tosay, it permits of very economical production of sugars refined straight,lromf the concentrated juice of the cane or from sugar beetroot, andalso the perfect refinement of; sugars of a very inferior quality. Thefundamental idea of the new process is the following: The animal orvegetable carbon-commonly used in sugar refining has as its principal.quality its capacity for absorption, and not its bleaching properties.In other words, these carbons are absorbents par; excellence for certainsalts, whereas their bleaching property is very small, itbeingthe,otheringre: clients, commonly used, which really possessthebleachingefi'ect, an'efiectof which very littleadvantage. is takentoday, owing to the fact that the decolorization ofthe. sugar,

syrupsis.producedrhiefiy by the formawhich are. subsequently a sorbed bythe carbons. In consequence of these new ideas, the manufacture ofrefined, sugar, whether directly from sugar cane juices or from sugarbeetroot, or fronrsugar so of inferior, quality, undergoes a complete;change, anda result is achievechina most economical manner, whichhitherto has been, if not technically impossible, at least commercially.prohibitive. By the new or.

process, one may, for example, producein this, country relined sugarseither directly from sugarcane juices or from sugar beet-1 root, at anadditional cost of one half a,

cent, per kilo orone fourth of a cent a pound, and refine sugarsoflowgrade at an, additional cost of onefourtha cent per kilo or one eighthof a cent a pound, whereasup to the present the first has been deemed.uni workable, and the second impossible only at .75

an additional costofat least ten centsper kilo or five cents apound. 1

Mynew process for which I an]: applying for patent protection, is thefollowing:

The juiceor molasses or syrup of the cane so or of the sugar beetroot,previously purified and concentrated by any of the usual systems, isheated at (3,, is limed strongly, and, then phosphoric acid and,

common alum is used. Afterwards sul- 5 phuric acidyis' added untilthere. is a slight, and onlybarely perceptible, acid reaction,Afterwardsv filter earth, paper pulp, or other efficient filteringmaterial is added,-

and the liquid is filtered whilst hot. T04

the juice thus filtered thereis added animal or vegetable carbon, andthe liquid is.

filtered again in separatefilters, afterwhich the liquid is ready. tobesubmittedto the,

usual known processes to be made into sugar.,

The residue, or parent molasses, resulting; from the whitening of thesugar, is, reboiled, with the object on producing ex hausted molasses,by the manner well known, either in one or two operations.

The sugars resulting from theseoperations, properly refined, areremelted, and the syrups from this remelting aretreated sepa-I rately inthe same. manner as the lirstjuices,

but'using only half the quantities oi'ingre m5 dientsas employed in thetreatment of the original juices.

The proportions ofingredients used in the new process per 100kilosofsugar produced are approxlmatelyz For cane juiceseor Inc- H9losses or treacle or for beetroot sugar: quiclrlime. the form,otslaclrsd lime 0.15

kilo; phosphoric acid in the form of dissolved paste 0.02 kilo; alum insolution 0.005 kilos; sulphur for the production of sulphuric acid 0.08kilos; filter earth 0.715 kilos, or an equivalent quantity of otherfiltering material, animal or vegetable cabon 0.07 kilos; for therefined raw sugars half the quantities mentioned. The proportions aresubject in individual cases to slight variations in accordance with thequality of the ingredients used, and to greater variations in thetreatment of the juices in accordance with the variation of theirpurity, the proportions given being the maximum supposing theingredients to be of good quality.

The new process dififers considerably from that at present in use as alogical conse quence of the considerations of a theoretical natureuponwhich it is based, which for their part are entirely distinct fromexisting ideas.

Their chiei novelty lies in the use of sulphuration tor the refining outsugar, and its application to the whole of the juices or syrups treated,the quantity of lime used, the quantity of lime being about 0.2% of therefined sugar produced, and that of sulphuric acid the amount necessaryto bring about the required reaction. As a consequence, an entirelynovel feature is the small quantity of bleaching carbon required, thisbeing only a hundredth part of the quantity aspresent used. Thecombination and the quantities of ingredients used in the 7 new processallow of a reduction in the cost of refining sugar to a tenth part ofwhat it costs at present, as well as signify a notable simplification inthe manufacture of refined sugars. This is revealed by a comparison ofcertain essential parts of the existing processes with those of the newmethod. The existing processes are characterized by the two stages bywhich the refined sugar is obtained, starting from the juices of thesugar cane or sugar beetroot. The manner of procedure is as tollowsz-Thejuices are crystallized, and by means of centrifugal battery a first lotof sugar is obtained (product A). To exhaust the parent molasses derivedfrom this first crystallization, it is recrystallized once or twice. Tosimplify the description, let us suppose that there is only onecrystallization, and that its product is a sugar of low grade (productB). This product B, unsuitable for refinement, is often melted up again,and the resulting syrup introduced into the original juice, to betransformed with the juice into product A. The whole of product A ismelted up again, and is then treated for the manufacture of refinedsugar by means of a fresh crystallization. This form of manufacturerequires two separate sets of apparatus for crystallization, of whichthat juice crystallizes after itstreatment directly into refined sugar,and the same happens with the su ar of low 'rade roduct B. It results,therefore, that the number of apparatus is reduced to one half of thoseat present required, and the capacity required is also considerablyless. The same applies when treating the manufacture of refined sugarfrom sugar of low grade and of inferior quality. Here again therecrystallization is proceeded with under present methods hetore therefined sugar is manufactured, whereas in the new process thiscomplication is avoided. At present, starting from raw sugar of ordinarytype (96 of polarization) from to of bleaching carbon is required. Thenew process requires only 0.05%, that is to say, from fifty to onehundred times less, to produce the same efiect. The manufacture ofrefined sugardirect from the juices of sugar cane or sugar beetroot,which is at present regarded as impracticable from a commercial point ofview, would require about of bleaching carbon. The very reduced quantityof this carbon used in the new process, namely 0.01%,

has now made this directmanufacture possible in the commercial sense. Inview of the economy just mentioned, in both appara tus and bleachingcarbons, the new process, with its ingredients, represents a cost somuch lower than that of the present methods, that the costs of refiningsugars, derived from one or other of the raw materials, are reduced to atenth part of the present costs.

The essential points of novelty in the new process are first, the smallquantity of alum used, which permits of the sulphuration of the juiceswhen strongly limed and at a high temperature, the alum being used inthis proportion for the purpose of securing the physico-chemical efiectof afiording an efiicacious protection against the destruction of thesugar, as Well as being a stimulant for the powerful absorption of thesalts formed by the carbon used, the quantity of which does not reach afiftieth part of that required in existing processes. And finally, thenew process now allows of the manufacture otrefined sugars directly fromsugar cane or sugar beetroot juices, or from sugar of very inferiorquality at a minimum cost, which is not possible under existing met-hodsowing to the prohibitive cost.

The apparatus required for the application of the new process does notdiffer from that commonly known already, and although it might berecommended that it would be better to use more perfected apparatus, yetby the help of suitable adaptations existing machinery could beused forthe new process.

The nature of my invention having been described and specified, with themanner 0t putting it into practice, that which I claim as my exclusiveproperty and invention is:

1. A process for the manufacture of refined sugars direct from juices ofsugar cane or sugar beetroot, which consists in heatingethe juices,liming the juices while at a high temperature, adding to the juices asmall quantity of alum and phosphoric acid,

sulphurizing the juicesto bring about an al most imperceptible acidreaction, filtering the liquid, submitting the filtered liquid to theaction of carbon, filtering the liquid, and

then submitting the filtered liquid to the or- I dinary processes forproducing sugar.

2. In a process for obtaining refined sugars, in accordance with claim1, the use of alum between the liming of the juices at a hightemperature and their sulphurization at a high temperature whereby thedestruction of the sugar is avoided and the action of the carbon in itsproperty of absorbing the salts formed is stimulated.

MAX RICHARD JOHANN SCHMID.

